Pregnant woman's accused attackers ordered to trial

Friday, November 9, 2012

A Warren man and his roommate have been ordered to stand trial for the abduction, burning and shooting last spring of a woman who was 9 months pregnant.

Jamal Rashard Rogers and Antonio Valentine Mathis, both 22, were bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court after the conclusion of testimony Thursday in a preliminary hearing in Warren district court, court officials said. The suspects face charges of assault with intent to commit murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment.

The victim, Latonya Bowman, 22, survived the May 26 attack and gave birth to a boy three days later via emergency Caesarean section. Both spent weeks in the hospital.

Warren police and Macomb County prosecutors say Rogers is the father of the child.

Bowman had previously testified that she picked up Rogers at his home on Sherman Avenue to go to a drive-in movie. When they returned, she was bound with duct tape, forced into the back seat of the sport-utility vehicle at gunpoint and driven to an area near Interstate 75 and I-94 where she was doused with lighter fluid, set on fire and shot twice in the shoulder, Bowman said.

Despite pain, she managed to play dead until the kidnapper ran. She rolled on the ground to smother the fire, got back in the vehicle and drove until she met up with her mother.

On Thursday, prosecutors showed video from a local Home Depot store. The footage, according to prosecutors, shows Mathis obtaining duct tape.

Rogers and Mathis remain held in the Macomb County Jail without bond as they await a pretrial hearing Nov. 19 in Circuit Court in downtown Mount Clemens.